Quote:
Originally Posted by saleen428
Just thought I would throw this out to you...
I have a set of custom wound springs for the '69 that lower it 2-2.5 inches.
If you do a search for my posts, you will see pictures of my car. Let me know if you are interested in them.
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That is the only way I would do it is by changing spring height. The only issue changing spring height may cause is starting point for the caber curve. Which can affect handling during aggressive suspension position changes such as hard cornering.
For those that don't understand camber curve, as suspension travels the spindle moves in an an arc created by the arcs of the UCA and LCA. As these arcs change the camber of the front tires changes. If the tires lean top in during suspension travel the camber curve is negative, if the tires lean out it is positive. No change would equals a static curve, but all suspension have at least a small amout of change. For the purpose of handling negative camber makes for better tire to road contact, but has the negative effect of causing tires to where out. so idealy as a performance driven car you would want a camber curve that is near static or slightly negative.
Spring height does not change the camber curve, it is a constant definded by the arc of the UCA and LCA, but it does affect where on the curve the suspension starts. With this in mind the tire start out at stock ride setting, in other words what the car is aligned to. Due to the camber curve camber changes as the suspension travels. sense it is an arc changes become more savear as the control arms reach there upper and lower maxes. With this in mind most manufactures design the center of the camber curve arc to be at normal ride height. I tell you all this because, by changing spring height you change the normal ride height and thus you change where on the camber curve the stock alignment setting are placed so more change from the stock setting in camber happens with less suspension travel acording to the designed camber curve.
To make matters worse with an unexperienced driver and a high torque car extra caster can aggrovate existing oversteer in a car which all rear wheel cars have to some degree.
Excerpt from a web page I am writing on suspension fundementials
"Oversteer is defined as the situation when the rear wheels do not fallow directly behind the front wheels when turning and slide out toward the outside of the turn. The danger of oversteer is that it can throw the car into a spin. The seseptiability of a car to oversteer is affected by several things such as traction between the tires and the road, aerodynamics suspension, and or driver control. Oversteer is easier to induce in Rear wheel drive cars by applying power in a tight corner. This happens because the rear tires must handle both the lateral cornering force and engine torque and by braken the tire loose with torque you will automaticly loose traction latterly. Oversteer relates more to the back tires than the front however things like improveng front traction can exzagerate existing oversteer."
With this in mind car manufactures of the 60s tended to make a nutral to positive camber curve. soooooo, and here I finally come to my point
if the camber curve of a Galaxie is as I am guessing positive (I have not actualy checked but most 60s era cars were...the camber curve was positive in the Mustang for heavens sake) than by running shorter springs you will be starting at a more aggressive position on camber curve resulting in more positive caster and less front wheel traction in other words reduced handling.
If by some miracle the curve was negative from Ford you will get better handling by running shorter springs. All that said A small change in ride height will not adversely change things but keep all this in mind the more drastic the change the more it will affect things.
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